[quote="sheerheartattack"]Anyway, this "wall of noise" that you speak of is a common production technique, and is hardly noteworthy. I'm not trying to pick on you, but yeah.[/quote]

Commonly done, yes. Commonly done so well, I doubt it.

But whatever, our opinions simply differ. (plus, I'm going to bed)

[quote="sheerheartattack"]The LB-HB era marks the pillows' most memorable and successful works, along with a distinct change in style indicative of the actualization of the identity that the pillows would carry for the rest of their career. Essentially, in this era, the pillows "discovered" their identity.[/quote]

I thought the same thing, when I first started listening to the band way back whenever. Runners High and Happy Bivouac have some good songs, but Living Field and Please Mr. Lostman are much better albums. If one were to combine the best songs off of RH and HB, you'd have a pretty killer album, but I'm inclined to think it's FLCL nostalgia that makes some people say the latter two are in the pillows' top three. I'm more interested in overall quality than musical consistency, anyway.

Dude, come on:

No Self Control, Wake up Frenzy, Paper Triangle, Bran-new Lovesong, Borderline Case, Midnight Down, Instant Music, and Juliet all from RH.

Last Dinosaur, Carnival, Our Love and Peace, Funny Bunny, Beautiful Morning with You, Back Seat Dog, Crazy Sunshine, Kim Deal, and Advice were all from HB. NOT TO MENTION these two albums were released in the same year with quite a hefty string of singles in between.

If for nothing else, they're part of the Holy Trinity because LB, RH, and HB should be one gigangtic album that is full of win and awesome and wow.

I still think that LB, RH, and HB are the pillows' "Holy Trinity". I am NOT saying its their best work though.

Did anyone else find it funny that jedi took the time to make a graph in order to say "the pillows suck"?

Lame.

If I recall correctly. On the interview for Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! Sawao said that the trio were still experimenting and trying new things. And that their sound was constantly changing as they explored.

So what "The Pillows Right Now" is and "The Pillows Will Always Be" is different.

I can say that very little of what they will always be, because every album they change ALOT. Upon retrospect, My Foot and Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! sound very different. As in they have a completly different feel than one another. My Foot is kind of an eclectic adventure into a world of ideas, Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! is a cartoony highlight show of a young man's life, very anime.

Hell their sound is different every release. Thats the most exciting thing about em. Ladybird Girl And Hello! is a much more focused feel than Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! but still it's feel is outside of the album. Ladybird Girl And Hello! is sort of swoony and delirious all around. A feel that was not found inside Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! at all. It sounds back to earth but still romanticized.

I dont think The Pillows have found their sound. Frankly I dont think they ever have found their sound. Sawao writes music according to the mood he's in, his mood is effected by his life and what music he listens to. So just as every year he himself changes, so does the music he writes. The Sawao of Scarecrow was different from the Sawao of Ladybird Girl. You see?

There have been a few things I hold constant about The Pillows. It's never hopelessly sad, it's only ever bittersweet when it is sad, and it's never something you've heard a thousand times before. Even Manabe-the-god repeats techniques. And yes a few of their songs sound alike. But it's never the tired old repetition of those bands that actually have found a sound and shackled themselves to it.

As long as Sawao continues to listen to music, and his life continues to change, each album will change. This notably poppy clean sound will pass. Just as his grunge days, just as his genre-less days, just as the pumpkin field days, just as the industrialized days. Sawao IS getting older after all. In my opinion IF The Pillows were to ever settle on a sound. Thats the time they would start getting worse. Because that means that Sawao's condition is no longer what feuls his music. And that's when it will start feeling fake and forced.

And THAT's what will be the end of The Pillows.

cheers

[quote="GoldenRhino"]We always talk about the verse, chorus, and solo. Isn't that what pop rock songs have pretty much ALWAYS been composed of?[/quote]

Fixed.

Also I'm totally in love with Ladybird girl for that amazing chorus.

i leave IM for a few weeks to get trashed and sleep with scenester sluts, and i come back to find you're all a bunch of happy urbanites.
also: pillows have sucked for years now.




/trolling.

(edited for slurs -Jomel)

[quote="AWPJudy"]i leave IM for a few weeks to get trashed and sleep with scenester sluts, and i come back to find you're all a bunch of lulz. figures.
(ditto -Jomei)
also: pillows have sucked for years now.
[/quote]

I agree. it's a bunch of bullshit to argue our subjective opinions on which album is their best and how much they suck now compared to earlier work.

PROTIP ITT: the present will always suck in comparison with history. this is how nostalgia works. the grass is always greener in the past and it's only a downward spiral from there. maybe in the distant future the present will suck so much the universe will collapse on itself and start over. *fingers crossed*

</derailment>

in other news, I thought runners high was a solid album.

Runners High is a tough album for me, because although some songs are among my favorites (No Self Control, Midnight Down, Bran-New Lovesong), there seems to be quite a bit of filler on it (Sad Sad Kiddie, Runners High, Wake Up Frenzy.) I actually like it quite a bit more than in the past.

I can think of at least one exception to "the present will always suck in comparison with history": Computers. Really, how many people do you know yearning for the god 'ol days of the 486 and Windows 3.1? There may be a Vintage Computing magazine someday, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

Might as well throw all technology under that exception. And hot girls. Hot girls just keep getting hotter as time goes on (not the same ones, of course).

However, with music, nostalgia is the emperor of the universe. Or pretend nostalgia (i.e. liking a band's earlier work, despite being exposed to it all at the same time - or even in reverse chronological order).

Also, generally, the word "filler" is reserved to songs that are placed on an album for lack of better songs, rather than, say, the title track.

we tend to look backward and romanticize it because things seemed simpler back then. The same goes for music. Alot of older stuff seems like undeveloped and closer to the core of something.

I think its the connotation of things from the past being younger. and that connotates energy and purity just like human youth.

However, what we fail to see alot is that the past was just as complicated as they are now. just modernly we have found ways of streamlining the problems and having other things work them out for us. Thats the purpose of computers after all.

Pertaining to music. It is hard to say what is good and what will be memorable from a release because as time goes on certain things will come out of the song as it ages. Some songs age like wine, others like milk.

and ultimatly this doesnt mean a thing. Because we like things when we like them, there's no right or wrong answer. And in 5 years we will like what we like. You cant be wrong on that point.

rash declarations of any music "sucking" is a pointless argument. I'm getting tired of seeing these boards go down that circular road over and over again. Becase afterall, nobody ever was convinced to stop liking a song, and nobody's going to get convinced to start liking something.

One thing that is doubtful of changing is my inability to stay 100% on-topic for very long. But I would like to say that rewatching Gundam Wing as I'm older... I still love it and really appreciate it, perhaps even moreso now than then. Sure, I can see a lot of the political logic is VERY flawed in the beginning of the anime, hell, all of it is, but as I've gotten older and had to realize...

humans logic ain't

Now that I think about it... Oh hell, I'll make this on topic in Living Field or something.

[quote="Blank"]stuff[/quote]

oh man, gundam wing used to be [i]so deep[/i], but then i rewatched it..

and then eva, EVA was DEEP.

only now do i see it as 1st-week-1st-year psychology..


i still love them both dearly. as cheap and uninspired as i cant help but feel their recent works are, they're still the motherfucking pillows. and GR's right, nostalgia will always be a [i]huge[/i] factor. most of us are upset because of the ridiculously high standards set by their early works, but more importantly, with how jaw-dropping it was when we first heard it, only to have it followed up with something.. different. some embrace it (mare), whereas some just choose to think their (shitty) opinions on everything are just supremely better than everyone else's.. (JEDI)

i still love the pillows, and as it's been said a million times already. change in style/complexity of songs =/= loss of creativity.

paul. fucking. gilbert. went from playing terrifying shred metal, to shitty mellow rock, to pop rock, then back to terrifying shred metal, and everywhere inbetween, in the same 20 year span as the pillows. nobody knows where they'll end up..


also: +1 jomei for creative modding. jew.

also: HOLY SHIT! ON TOPIC POST! COVERING MULTIPLE FACETS OF THE SUBJECT AND AT THE SAME TIME ACKNOWLEDGING AND REFERENDCING PREVIOUS POSTS! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!?

also: COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS COCKS

Nostalgia sure ain't what it used to be...